As is known, many of the commercially available formats of pasta are obtained by extrusion, i.e., by forcing a mix, usually based on water and flour, to pass through passages defined in a tool, known indeed as die or extrusion die. At the output of these passages there is at least one blade with one or more cutting elements that cuts the pasta as it exits from the die.
More particularly, the die usually has a substantially disk-like shape and is arranged so that its axis is vertical. The die is crossed, from its upper face to its lower face, by a plurality of passages, the transverse sectional shape of which varies from die to die depending on the shape of the pasta to be made.
In pasta making plants, the die is arranged in an adapted receptacle at the output of a press that pushes the mix against the upper face of the die, forcing it to pass through the passages of the die.
On the lower face of the die usually there is at least one blade that can be actuated with a continuous or intermittent rotary motion about the axis of the die so as to affect progressively the strands of pasta that exit below the die in order to cut them with a length that is a function of the frequency with which the blade rotates and of the speed with which the pasta is extruded from the die.
Below the die usually there is a chute that collects the cut pasta and conveys it into a container or under onto an underlying conveyor.
The blade and the chute are part of a cutting apparatus that is arranged below the die to be served.
When cutting of the pieces of pasta along an inclined plane is required, such as for example in the case of the pasta format known as “penne”, the cutting apparatus is equipped with an accessory known as “cutting cone”, which can be associated with the lower face of the die and has a plurality of passages, each of which can be arranged in alignment with a passage of the die. The outlets of the passages of the cutting cone are arranged on a conical surface, the axis of which coincides with the axis of the die. At least one blade is actuated on this conical surface, rotates about the axis of the conical surface and in this manner cuts the strands of pasta that exit from these outlets along inclined planes.
In this accessory, the blade is mounted on the cutting cone and is actuated by means of a mechanical transmission that belongs to the cutting apparatus and is the same transmission that actuates the blade or blades that act on the lower face of the die in the absence of the cutting cone.
As an alternative to the cutting cone, other cutting accessories can be mounted for the production of particular pasta formats, such as for example the accessory known as straight cutter.
Usually, a pasta production line is provided so as to be able to produce various formats of pasta after replacing the die and the cutting accessory, if any, mounted on the cutting apparatus that serves it.
Die replacement is usually automated, while replacement or simple mounting of the cutting accessory in cutting apparatuses of the known type, are performed by means of almost entirely manual operations.
These operations require a stop of the pasta production line that affects significantly the productivity of the line.
A similar problem can be observed in plants for the production of snacks that use dies and cutting apparatuses similar to the ones described above.